Robert Sims
exemptions and exceptions
Tue Feb 20 22:24:07 2001


I wanted to give a little more anecdotal detail to this man, as it may guide us all to some new information. His ancestry has preachers in almost all generations, but he did not apparently ask for that exemption.

The local historian said that all the Simses (all spellings) in Sumter Co he ever knew about were railroad men. I found a reference in the records of the Selma-Meridian Railroad that said more than 120 men were conscripted to build the railroad and that the Board of Directors, all Field Grade officers in the CSA Army, had a bitter disagreement about the policy of conscripts for that purpose.

The historian in that county also said that there was probably a good reason Henry Sims was in the Lauderdale Dist. of the census in 1860, but otherwise always in the Intercourse Dist. of Sumter Co. until his death in 1897 and in 1850. Railroad construction was accelerated just before the war, so he speculated Mr. Sims might have been involved.

There is other circumstantial detail to suppose a look at this hypothesis that I will give if wanted.

The Road records of the Selma-Meridian I found were board minutes and did not include documentation or detail except in the debate and consequent refusal of one officer to use conscripts when ordered by the Chairman or the senior officer. It is quite confusing that a railroad run by and perhaps owned by the CSA operated like a private company as it was before the war, but that is what they did.

It is possible Pvt. Sims was somehow conscripted to construct the road after the war began, continuing as he did before the war as an employee of that company or contracted laborer/overseer. That is a complex speculation but it has so far produced additional documentation as I pursue it.

Does anyone know where those conscripts might be recorded if they were ever, and how did the CSA handle railroad personnel: exempt civilians,which are not mentioned in the legislation you posted, or detailed military specialists?

Also, has anyone else run into the history of that company. Its obvious strategic importance magnified as you described the Selma depot. The road ran to western MS and then it had a north-south spur that ran up the backbone of MS, making it a cross-shaped configutation.

I am pursuing additional information on it and it is possible Pvt. Sims was a super-exceptional case in the war and his age only confuses the other issues. He lived on it and the officers who ran it were his neighbors in Greene and Sumter Co as best I can tell-even owned the property he lived on or immediately next.